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STANDARD

Welcome to our live page on the crisis in eastern Ukraine, where shelling has intensified in the city of Donetsk as a large Russian aid convoy heads for the neighbouring rebel-held region of Luhansk.

STANDARD 11:51

More than 100 lorries which left the southern Russian city of Voronezh on Thursday morning are now heading for the border with eastern Ukraine.

STANDARD 11:52

As the convoy closed in on the border, artillery shells were fired at targets in the centre of Donetsk. Ukrainian government forces have encircled the rebel-held city.

STANDARD 12:01:

The Russian convoy of trucks, which the Kremlin says is carrying humanitarian aid for Ukraine, has been moving towards the border, along a road south of the city of Voronezh.

STANDARD 12:08

Russia's President Vladimir Putin has given a speech in Crimea, saying the war in Ukraine is a "bloody chaos" and must end soon. He said Russia would do "everything in our power" to ensure the conflict is ended "as soon as possible".

STANDARD 12:17

Mr Putin urged Russians to "consolidate and mobilise, but not for war or any kind of confrontation". He said: "We must ... build up our country, not fence it off from the outside world." Russia's annexation of Crimea in March triggered a crisis in Russian relations with the West - and both sides have since imposed sanctions on each other.

STANDARD 12:25

Mr Putin says he has approved plans to develop a "military task force" in Crimea, Reuters news agency reports. It is not yet clear what elements will form that force.

STANDARD 12:29

Photographs are coming in from the centre of Donetsk, which came under heavy artillery fire this morning. Here men help a wounded woman in a street. Eyewitnesses said the shelling hit a local prosecutor's office, being used by the insurgents.

EMAIL

Robert Holman, in Leixlip, Ireland

emails: I have a friend in Lugansk and yes their need is dire. No water, limited power or food. But Russian aid given strikes one as hypocritical if not a manipulation of the facts at the hands of Putin and his cohorts. How do we know it is aid and not arms?

STANDARD 12:41

Fighting between Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian rebels has intensified in eastern Ukraine in recent weeks. The UN says some 2,086 people have been killed since fighting began in April and more than half died in the past two weeks.